Category: techno

Moby’s new CD drops today

Moby’s new CD Last Night dropped today. Great stuff.

You can do like I did and download the entire album in Mp3 format (aka no digital file management malarkey like iTunes or Zune) for $9.49 from Amazon.com. Awesome! Who would have thought we’d reach a point where I could listen to a podcast from NPR on my computer at work, and within a few clicks have a brand new album delivered to my computer and my Zune? Awesome.

Or if you’d prefer, you can purchase a CD copy of the album for $9.99 from Amazon (plus shipping & handling):

Google and Virgin join in plans to colonize Mars

Imagine if you will – the universe’s first (known) Open Source Planet. Google and Virgin Group have teamed together and with plans to colonize Mars. Very cool!

(it\'s an April Fool\'s Joke)

From Google:

For thousands of years, the human race has spread out across the Earth, scaling mountains and plying the oceans, planting crops and building highways, raising skyscrapers and atmospheric CO2 levels, and observing, with tremendous and unflagging enthusiasm, the Biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply across our world’s every last nook, cranny and subdivision.

An invitation.
Earth has issues, and it’s time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars…

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Virgin Group today announced the launch of Virgle Inc., a jointly owned and operated venture dedicated to the establishment of a human settlement on Mars.

“Some people are calling Virgle an ‘interplanetary Noah’s Ark,'” said Virgin Group President and Founder Sir Richard Branson, who conceived the new venture. “I’m one of them. It’s a potentially remarkable business, but more than that, it’s a glorious adventure. For me, Virgle evokes the spirit of explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo, who set sail looking for the New World. I do hope we’ll be a bit more efficient about actually finding it, though.”

The Virgle 100 Year Plan’s milestones will include Virgle Pioneer selection (2008-2010), the first manned journey to Mars (2016), a Virgle Inc. initial public offering to capitalize on the first manned journey to Mars (2016), the founding of the first permanent Martian municipality, Virgle City (2050), and the achievement of a truly self-sustaining Martian civilization with a population exceeding 100,000 (2108).

“Virgle is the ultimate application of a principle we’ve always believed at Google: that you can do well by doing good,” said Google co-founder Larry Page, who plans to share leadership of the new Martian civilization with Branson and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

“We feel that ensuring the survival of the human race by helping it colonize a new planet is both a moral good in and of itself and also the most likely method of ensuring the survival of our best – okay, fine, only — base of web search volume and advertising inventory,” Page added. “So, you know, it’s, like, win-win.”

The original contingent of Virgle Pioneers will be selected by numerous criteria, including an online questionnaire, video submission, personal accomplishments, expertise in scientific, artistic, sociological and/or political fields of endeavor, and inadequate Google and Virgin personal performance reviews.

You can apply to help plan this “open source community” online at: www.google.com/virgle or find out just how real Virgle is.

Internet Power

In case anyone’s missed it (doubt that’s the case if you’re reading this), there’s a new technology available for learning, fun and communication – I believe they call it the Internet.

Find out more via this 1995 video:

Just 12 years ago and the top weather site mentioned in the video was “The Weatherman.” There’s also not even a single mention of Google in the video – my how things change.

Thanks to CommonCraft for the heads up.

Memphis… A to Z

Laurie’s got a quick recap of our Memphis trip on her blog for everyone. I microblogged (Twittered) much of the trip but I figured I’d give everyone a quick recap here as well.

a – we left early Thursday morning
b – stopped and grabbed a pic near the Texas/Arkansas border
c – found a Geocache at a rest stop where we ate lunch
d – stopped in Arkadelphia to fill up and found out they don’t like loud music
e – drove from there to Memphis
f – arrived at the hotel around 4ish and then headed downtown to Beale St
g – ended up at an Irish pub for dinner
h – stopped at the Lorraine Motel and took photos of the place where Dr. Martin Luther King was gunned down April 4, 1968
i – took some night pictures of the Mississippi
j – woke up Friday morning and headed to Graceland, home of Elvis Presley
k – it was well worth the visit but they have turned that area into a money making tourist trap for Elvis Presley Enterprises
l – signed our name to the fence outside Graceland
m – ate lunch back at the hotel and then headed to Sun Studios where Elvis recorded his first single and U2 recorded several songs while filming and recording Rattle and Hum
n – found another geocache along the banks of the Mississippi River
o – enjoyed a nap and then had dinner at Chick-fil-A
p – woke up the next morning and headed back to Graceland to grab a Sun Studio hat — funny that the Sun Studio hat I wanted was at Graceland and the Elvis keychain Laurie wanted was at a store near Graceland, not at Graceland
q – drove 4 or 5 miles south to Mississippi and found our first geocache in Mississippi
r – headed back to downtown Memphis and toured the Gibson Guitar Factory — before arriving Laurie suggested maybe we should buy me another guitar while we were there. i was all for that (and still am) but figured she didn’t realize how expensive Gibson Guitars really are. besides knowing how great the look and sound – after seeing how they make their guitars by hand we both understand why they’re so expensive.
s – found some great Memphis BBQ at Corky’s on the east side of Memphis. Laurie says it tops her favorite, Red, Hot & Blue. i may have to agree but i don’t know if any BBQ tops the great BBQ at Cyclone Corral BBQ outside Temple, Texas.
t – made a random stop at Target and bought Elvis’ 30 #1 hits — another random Elvis purchase away from Graceland ($9 compared to $22)
u – headed back to Dallas Sunday morning
v – stopped along the way for another geocache in Arkansas and dropped off a travel bug and grabbed a new one – didn’t realize till we were back home that the travel bug we grabbed was actually on it’s way to Memphis and not away from it – DOH!
w – stopped in Sulphur Springs to see family and to see Bryan and Amanda’s new house
x – it’s very Oyler-esque – all the way to Bryan’s collection of John Deere collectible tractors
y – ate dinner at Snuffers in Rockwall – mmm Snuffers
z – arrived back home around 9 after picking Presley up from Laurie’s parents

So there you have it – Memphis A-Z. Hope you enjoyed our trip. We sure did.

The economics of free

I’m a big fan of things that are free. Isn’t everyone?

Chris Anderson, editor and chief of Wired Magazine was on Charlie Rose’s show discussing his book, Long Tail (hat tip to John for the original tip).

Very interesting ideas about the economics of the web, along with his latest cover story from Wired Magazine.

Common Craft also had some interesting thoughts on Anderson’s ideas:

I want to talk a bit about how “Free” has impacted Common Craft…

Being a small company, we need to keep costs down, and the free economy has been a huge help…

  • Bandwidth: We pay zero bandwidth costs to serve our videos online.
  • Web hosting: Our web site is essentially free to us thanks to the fine folks at RainCity Studios.
  • Marketing: We spend little, if anything on traditional marketing.
  • Communication/Collaboration: We’re heavy users of Google’s free business services
  • At the same time, we’ve oriented our business around freeness.

Let’s pretend that we started making videos like RSS in Plain English with the purpose of making money from them directly, perhaps by charging for access. Here’s what wouldn’t have happened:

  • We wouldn’t have put the videos on You Tube, Blip.tv, etc.
  • The videos would have never been spread across the Web via bloggers.
  • We would not have a popular blog or videos with lots of views.
  • There would not be demand for our custom services
  • We would not have worked for Google, H&R Block, Redfin, etc.
  • We wouldn’t have a recognizable brand.
  • We would not be so happy right now

In case you didn’t know, every Charlie Rose interview is also available for free on the Interweb.